1: I think a mix would be a good compromise for those of us that put in the effort to really learn the desert borderland, loved having NEW CONTENT, roam, use movement skills, and enjoyed the unique aspect that each tower and keep brought versus those that blob and enjoy tiny boring maps. Also, the desert bl’s are way easier to defend than the alpine bl’s, contrary to what I’ve heard people say. In the alpine and EB, you can just run into a tower or keep or sm and treb the next objective over with the defending server not able to do anything but hope they can get a counter treb up (or 2 if the invaders have shield generators). At least the larger size of the desert bl’s makes it so that if the invaders are trebbing, you can hit them with your skills or other strategic siege. I’ve seen the keep lords in the desert bl’s wipe entire zergs if there are a couple good defenders while the alpine ones are completely useless and the only good one in EB is the SM lord, so rather than give the desert bl to the server that is favored to win, give it to the 2 that are not. In this way, you have EB and 1 alpine map, which are similar to each other in terms of content and zerg-favoring and 2 desert bl’s which still favor zergs, but also really give roamers and smaller groups more of a tactical advantage. And before you argue that it will take longer for the lower servers to take their desert bl’s at the start, not true. You would be the same person saying the desert bl’s are hard to defend, which means it is easier for you to take. You can assume the large zergs would hit the alpine bl and EB, so have smaller groups just focus desert. With server linking apparently staying, population participation shouldn’t be a problem. I bet barely anyone that is saying no completely to the desert bl’s never even stayed or tried to explore long enough to see all the really cool content in them such as how many routes you can use to confuse the enemy or the hidden quaggan village in the northwest training cats for that quaggan re-introduction to wvw update.
TLDR – YES
2: Every month I guess.
3 and 4: I think mortar might be interesting but brutal. Cannons would have to cost more or be less tanky because they are incredibly strong atm and with infinite coverage and possibly repairs if 5 goes through, impossible for even the most tactical smaller groups. I’d have to say no.
5: I agree with the people saying repairs would favor big blobs even more so than they already are with the tiny alpine bl’s back, so no.
6: Prioritize not making yes or no polls and letting those of us that play the game extensively to really give knowledgeable meaning to our answers.